The Betting Game
by PhantoMunk
Summary: When Jimmy and Cindy argue, the loser has to hold up their end of the deal. But somebody is taking advantage of these bets. How long until all the arguing and bets become to much? *CHAPTER SEVEN NOW UP*
1. Introduction: Color Blind

The sound of two angry voices carried throughout the Candy Bar. Those angry voices belonged to angry people. It's funny how something brought up in *cough* everyday conversation can spark such an exsplosive argument, but then again, it's also funny how neither one of the two verbal combatants were actually mad at each other.

* * *

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"I'm telling you Nerdtron, black is not a color!"

"It is too a color, Cin...uh...dork!"

"Oh, so you're resorting to name calling? That means I'm right!"

"You are so wrong! Have you ever mixed all the colors together? It comes out black!"

"Uh, no it doesn't, it comes out all yucky and brown!"

"Oh my lord, they have got to stop!" A voice went unnoticed to the two bickering.

You mean 'Oh my UltraLord!' Libby?" Sheen replied charasmatically.

Libby sighed out exsasperatedly from the next booth over. She was sitting with Sheen and Carl, and they had been listening to those two go back and forth for a good fifteen minutes solid.

"I don't get it, why are they always arguing?" Carl asked, "It makes my scapula hurt." Sheen looked over at him.

"Because Carl, if they didn't the martians would come and enslave the human race!" Libby rolled her eyes.

"Or they're just to stubborn to admit that they both like each other"

"Yeah, what she said."

"Sheen, how was that anything like what you said?"

Sheen thought for a second. "Well, there's the enslaving part."

"How much you want to bet that black isnt a color?" Cindys voice shouted from the next booth.

"Fine, if I win, you have to call me "Jimmy" instead of "Nerdtron" for the rest of our lives."

"Well then, if I win, uhh, you have to let me in your lab whenever I want!"

"Deal." Upon saying that, they shook hands. Jimmy was to caught up in finding a dictionary that he didn't notice Cindys reluctance ending the handshake. Cindy ran up over to Jimmy as he left the Candy Bar.

"Wait up, Nerdtron!" Cindy yanked open the doors.

"You'd better enjoy that while you can, becase it's going to be that last time you'll ever get to say it."

Carl looked over at Sheen. "Is black really a color?"

"Of course, that's why they have black crayons!"

"I never liked the black crayons. They tasted bad." Carl said, mostly to himself.

Sheen and Libby gave Carl a weird look. "What?"


	2. Aurora Borealis

It's kind of interesting, the way some people go out of their way just to make sure the person they have feelings for doesn't know about those feelings. Sooner or later they'll have to know about them if a relationship is ever to be formed.  


* * *

"Hey Jimmy, what are you doing?" Jimmy looked up to see his best friend Carl.

"Oh hey Carl. I'm just modifying the entry system for my lab."

Carl looked confused. "Why? Weren't they fine before?"

"Yeah, but now I have to let Cindy in to my lab whenever she wants. This is just easier than unlocking all the security mechanisms when she want to come in." Jimmy said those last few words with disgust. "There, almost done. Carl, watch my project, I have to go call Cindy."

"Ooh, inviting her over already?" Carl teased.

"Sigh... no Carl, I'm simply calling her over so I can capture her voice into the computer system for her to gain access to my lab." Jimmy ran off towards his house.

"So you are inviting her over then?" Carl shouted after him. Jimmy sighed and kept running.

* * *

"Alright, Nerdtron, what am I supposed to do? Cindy tapped her foot impatiently, staring at the machine in front of her.

"Alright Cindy, all you have to do is speak your name to the machine when I activate the voice sequence, and it will record your entire overtone series into the computer, giving you," Jimmy looked to the ground and sighed, "...complete access to my lab."

Looking over at him, Cindy noticed that Jimmy looked a little, well, sad. But, even still, he had to hold up to his end of the bargain, and she couldn't look weak by backing down.

Not to mention that she really really really wanted to get into his lab whenever she wanted.  
_"I'll be able to see him whenever I want! Not that I want to look eager though, I don't ever want him to know that I lo-"_

"Hello? Earth to Cindy!" Jimmy's voice peirced through her thougths. "Huh? Oh, right." Cindy looked at the screen hanging over the doorway to the lab. "How do I know when to talk?"

"State your full name as soon as I give you a thumbs up."

"My full name? Why can't we leave out my middle name?" Cindy asked with a pout.

"Because, that's how the computer is set up. Besides, 'Aurora' is a wonderful name. It stems from the northern lights, or aurora borealis, which is quite a spectacle when veiwed from certain parts of Canada, or Alaska. It got the name from the Roman goddes of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek-"

"Alright, I'll use my full name." Cindy threw her hands up in the air. _  
"Sometimes Jimmy talks way to much. He does look cute when he's excited though. Wait, what am I thinking, Jimmy cute? I might need therapy._

_  
_Jimmy stick his thumb up in the air, signaling for Cindy. "Cindy Aurora Vortex."

"There, thank you Cindy, now I just have to do some minor adjustments. This will be all set up for you tommorow morning." He turned his head back towards his work.

"Oh, alright, I guess I'll see you tommorow then." Downtrodden, Cindy started towards her house. "Goodnight Cindy." Jimmy's voice yet again peirced into her head.

"Yeah, Goodnight." Cindy replied back. "Jimmy" She added in a whisper.

* * *

"Hey girl, what you are doing out so late?" Cindy jumped up, startled. She was halfway to her house when she encoutered her best friend Libby.

"Oh hey Libs. I was just, uh.."

"Over at Jimmy's?" Libby finished Cindy's reply. "I know, I was there."

"What?" Cindy asked in surprise. "I didn't see you!"

"That's cause I was hiding. Did you hear him sneak in that compliment in there?" Cindy just stared at her. "What compliment?"

"He said you name was a spectacle, he thinks it's b-e-a-utiful."

"I'm pretty sure you're looking way to far into it Libby. Clearly he was going into one of his big headed moments." Arriving at her house, Cindy left Libby on the sidewalk and headed up her front steps.

"Alright, have it you way girl, but i know you've got the hots for Jim-"

"Goodnight Libby!" Cindy shut the door on her. *Dong!* She looked over at the clock, seeing that it had just turned eight. Trudging up the stairs to her bedroom, she couldn't help but wonder about what Libby had said. She flopped down on her bed as soon as she entered her room. Staring at her ceiling, she thought about it some more.

* * *

"There, that ought to do it." Jimmy wiped his hands together, satisfied with his work. "Well Goddard, lets go shut down the lab and get ready for bed, hey boy?" Goddard barked in agreement. Racing down to the lab, Jimmy heard the telephone ring. "Vox, phone please!" A telephone was lowered down from the ceiling. "Thanks Vox. Hello?"

"Hi Neutron" A familiar voice came through the line.

"Ciindy, hi. Is there anything wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I was, uh, just wondering about something."

"About what?" Jimmy asked confused.

"About what you said about my middle name." On the other end of the line, Cindy crossed her fingers, hoping he wouldn't getr suspicious. She really wanted to know if he was complimenting her or not, but she really didn't want him to know, or even think, that she liked him.

Jimmy thought for a second. "What? Oh, yeah! Named after the Roman goddess of dawn, 'Aurora', and the Greek god of wind, Boreas. It was named by Pierre Gassendi in 1621, though the Cree people refer to it as the 'Dance of the Spirits.'" He heard Cindy sigh over the phone.

"Yeah, that's what I was wondering about." Cindy was both relieved and dissapointed. "The lights kind of remind me of some sort of fox running around in the sky."

"Cindy, while the fox is a prime species of Felinae, I don't think it can run around in the sky."

"Ugh, I know that Neutron. Wait, did you just say the Fox's were felines?"

"Yeah, so what?" Jimmy asked.

"Fox's are canines, that's why they look like dogs."

"No they're not, they're felines!"

"You don't know what you're talking about Neutron, their obviously dogs." Cindy rolled her eyes. How could he be that thick?

Cindy couldn't see Jimmy grin over the phone. "How much you want to bet?"


	3. Dining Atmospheric Pressure

I have always wondered about how fast the human brain operates, conjuring so many thoughts in less than a second. It's like having an entire conversation with someone in half a second. And it still amazes me that while it can operate that fast, sometimes it just moves so slow.

* * *

"Tell me again what Jimmy is doing Sheen?"

Carl and Sheen were in the lab, watching Jimmy build yet another device that they had no idea what it was supposed to do. He had been working on it for hours, and they weren't even sure that Jimmy knew that they were there.

"Well, first he started pacing around, then he started up one of his machinymabobs, and it made some loud noises, and then-"

"I'm building a Hi Tech Utility Watch." Jimmy shouted over his instruments before turning back to his work.

"Oh, ok then." Carl looked confused. "What's a Utility Watch?"

"It's basically a watch version of the swiss army knife. It has a set amount of gadgets inside it for various situations." Jimmy turned off his machine. "There, that's the last of it."

"I thought you already had one of those Jimmy."

"I do, but I need to make another one."

"For what?"

"For me." Cindy appeared behind Carl, startling him, causing him to fall off the counter top he was sitting on. "Nerdtron has to make me one since he lost another bet. He tried to tell me that a fox was a feline!"

"That was a momentary lapse in judgement originating from my being exhausted from building that door that you just walked through and distraction from outside sources." Jimmy defended himself. Cindy wasn't impressed.

"Say all you want Neutron, but the point is, I won. Where's the watch?"

"Right here Cindy, but you didn't tell me what you wanted it to do, so I had to come up with stuff on my own. And I'm not building another one if you don't like this one!"

Cindy picked up the watch. "Well, what does it do? How does it work?"

"Well, all you have to do is press this button and think of the gadget you want it to produce. When your finger touches the pad of the button, it senses the thoughts about it in your head, and the gadget is pulled out of the tiny hypercube inside. You can't use two gadgets at once though, it's not a pretty end result." Jimmy scratched his head, remembering the last time he tried that.

"Well, what can it do?" Cindy asked impatiently.

"It comes standard with a small low power laser, a flashlight, CB radio, and time relaying functions. I added a thermometer, hair dryer, mirror, barometer, and strobe light." Cindy gave Jimmy a weird look.

"When would I ever need any of those?"

"You're the one who wanted the darn thing!" Jimmy shot back.

"Well why the heck would I need a barometer? When would I ever need to measure how fast the wind is moving?"

"What are you talking about? A barometer measures atmospheric pressure. You're thinking of an anemometer."

"No I'm not Neutron, just look it up."

"Fine, I will. But if I'm right, you have to call me Jimmy. No Neutron, and especially no Nerdtron."

"Fine, but if I'm right, you need to take this barometer out and replace it with something useful, like a lipstick holder or robotic arm or something!" Sheen looked over at Carl.

"Lets get out of here, they're starting to scare me." Carl and Sheen crept towards the exit.

* * *

"Well geeze, how long are they going to keep fighting?" Carl and Sheen found Libby at the Candy Bar. "I know Cindy has the hots for Jimmy, and I'm pretty sure that he-"

"No way, Jimmy doesn't like girls!" Carl interupted.

"Yeah, except Betty Quinlan." Sheen nudged Carls shoulder.

"Yeah, and doesn't Cindy like Nick?"

"Uh, that stuff is old news." Libby folded her arms. "I'm serious guys, if they keep up arguing like this, I'm going to start ripping my hair out."

"Yeah, they made Carl wet his pants."

"Did not! I told you that was my water bottle. I'm not good at opening those."

Libby rolled her eyes. "Seriously guys! We should do something about this!" Sheen scooted over to her.

"Sorry Libby, but Jimmy doesn't have time for girls. Besides, he's not as smooth as the Ultra Love Lord here."

"Whatever Ultra Dork."

"Hey! That is no way to talk to your boyfriend!"

"I will talk to my boyfriend however I want!"

_"Uh oh, now Libby and Sheen are going at it. I'm going to go slip out and ask Sam if I can sample his ice cream. I really like his tuna fish chocolate flavor." _Carl carefully snuck out of his booth while Libby and Sheen were arguing.

* * *

"Ok, you win Neutron." Jimmy gave Cindy a smug look. "I mean, Jimmy." That last part spoken through gritted teeth. Jimmy crossed his arms.

"Well I couldn't exactly let you win three in a row now, could I?"

"What do you mean let me win?"

"It's a figure of speech Cindy. Here, take the watch. Enjoy the barometer!" Jimmy placed the watch in her hands.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Cindy said in defeat. Jimmy crossed over to another side of the lab, and Cindy started to feel like she should leave Jimmy alone, but she couldn't drag herself away from the lab. "Hey Jimmy?" Jimmy turned around quickly.

"Why did you turn so fast?"

"I'm not used to you calling me Jimmy. I'll get used to it though. What did you want?"

"Oh, uhmm, I just wanted to say thanks, for the watch."

"There's no need. I had to own up to my end of the deal." Jimmy started to turn back to more of his work, but Cindy wasn't ready to let him do that yet.

"Yeah, I know. It looks really cool."

"So does everything else I invent. Right Goddard?" His mechanical dog barked in agreement.

"Next time when I win the bet I'm going to make you build me my own Goddard."

"Well then I'll just have to stop taking bets from you. Goddard is one of a kind." Jimmy almost sounded a little mad, making Cindy feel nervous.

"Well fine then, but my next one is going to be a doozy!" Cindy exclaimed. Jimmy just laughed.

"What makes you think you're going to win another bet?"

"Face it Neu, uh, Jimmy, I'm the queen of bets."

"I'll believe it when I see it." Jimmy turned around and headed for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Cindy asked, sad that he was going away.

'It's dinnertime, I'm gong to go eat. You can let yourself out anytime you like." Cindy felt a ping in her heart. "Oh, ok then." I guess I'll go home and see what I have to eat then."

"You're making yourself supper? What about your parents?"

"My mom is at a pink ladies meeting, and my dad, uhmm, he's gone, uhmm away." Cindy barely patched that sentence together.

"Oh." Jimmy said. It almost looked like he felt a little bad. _"Almost." _

"Well, you can come up here if you like. My mom usually makes extra anyways in case Carl eats here, but I don't think he'll be here tonight."

Her heart ping gone, Cindy felt a whole flock of butterflies take flight in her stomach. _"Oh my gosh, he's asking me to stay for supper! I mean, yeah, it's probably out of pity, but I still get to eat with him! Oh no! He'll see me eat! I don't want him to see me eat! What if I look like a cow chewing cuds? What if I have to sit next to him? I want to sit next to him, but I dont know what I'd do and-"_

"Cindy?" Jimmy yelled from the stairs, bring Cindy out of her trance. "Are you coming?"

"What? Oh, well..." She pretended to ponder it over. "Alright, I suppose. But only because you practically begged me to stay.

"Alright then Cindy." Jimmy rolled his eyes at her. _"Girls." _He thought. He turned and started up the stairs, leaving Cindy at the bottom.

_"Oh no! What if they're having shellfish! I'm allergic to shellfish! I don't want to turn down his moms food! This is going to be a disaster! He's going to hate me! I should have said no, now I'm going to make a fool of myself."_

"Cindy!" Jimmys voiced carried from upstairs. Cindy realized she was standing alone in Jimmy's lab. She rushed up the stairs.

"I'm coming!" She said, exiting the lab through a door that led right into Jimmy's bedroom.

_"Holy cow I'm in his bedroom! No Cindy! Don't get distracted, though this might be the only time I'll ever get to come in here. Oh, they've probably already started eating without me!" _Cindy flustered. Her mind was racing and her heart was pulsing. She didn't even try and deny that she liked Jimmy in her head; she was way to excited. And nervous. She walked into the dining room, seeing Jimmy and his dad sitting at the table, facing each other, and there were only four seats. Cindy was forced to sit next to him.

"I hope you like steaks Cindy." Jimmy's mother, Judy, said, making Cindy jump. "Tonight usually is shellfish night, but Jimmy told me you were allergic so I made these instead!"

_"Jimmy told her I was allergic? She sounds like she was already expecting me. She probably just noticed that I was in the lab when she was making dinner and assumed I would be staying. Jimmy probably had already told her a long time ago. _"Oh, uhmm yeah, steaks are fine, thank you." Cindy replied once her mind was done racing. Cindy gulped, prepared herself for an awkward evening, and took her seat. _"Here we go."_


	4. Flashback

No matter what you're watching, every great television show has a flashback episode. This chapter is my flashback episode. We're going to right around the time where Cindy started to admit to herself that she had feelings for Jimmy. Enjoy. (Also, refering back to my last chapter, I realize the absurdity of shellfish night. Just go with it, and things will be a lot easier. My words of wisdom will be back next chapter.)  


* * *

"I suppose you're wondering why I have gathered you all here today."

Jimmy was standing in his lab, behind him stood a large machine covered in a white sheet. Before him sat Carl, Sheen, Libby, and Cindy.

"Yeah, Nerdtron, what are we doing here?" Cindy asked. Jimmy walked towards his machine.

"Well, you see, due to the "complications" we expirienced the last time we used my Time Arch, I decided to downgrade it."

"Wait, so you made one of you're inventions worse?" Libby asked, confused.

"In theory, yes. But now we can only gaze into the future, and not enter it. This way we don't have to worry about messing it up."

"Like you messed up my birthday party?" Libby asked angrily. Jimmy averted his eyes from the steaming girl.

"So, who wants to see their future first?"

"Ooh ooh, I do! I do!" Sheen jumped to his feet and ran towards a random lever.

"No Sheen! Don't pull that! That's not the Time Arch!" Jimmy pulled back his friend. "Why don't you let me do the lever pulling, ok?"

"You got it Jimmy!" Sheen saluted. Jimmy walked over behind a panel and started messing with some buttons. Suddenly a picture came into view from inside the arch.

* * *

"Mr. Estevez, you're girlfriend is on the phone, she wants to speak with you!" A secretary shouted over a cubicle wall.

"Have her call back, I'm a little busy!" Sheen responded, coming into view by the cubicle door. He was covered head to toe with packing tape. He started to jump awayand began to fall. "Whoa!" He landed with a thud. "He'll have to call you back, he's otherwise detained....... No, this time it's packing tape. Alrighty then, thank you." She hustled over to the gift wrapped Sheen. "Mr. Estevez, how did you manage to do this one?"

"I don't know, I was searching my office for inspiration for next weeks episode, when this giant monster tape dispenser thingy came out and attacked me! I barely escaped with my life!"

"You tripped while taping the Ultra Lord logo on your chest, didn't you?"

"That also might have happened. What was that phone call?"

"Oh that was just your girlfriend, she wanted to remind you about tonight." They finally managed to unwrap him.

Sheen looked confused. "Tonight? Oh yeah, what time is it?" He looked at his Ultra Watch. "Oh no! I've only got 15 minutes to get downtown or I'll miss the concert!"

"Well you'd better get going then. I'll wrap up things here."

Sheen ran out the door. "Thanks secretary lady!" She sighed.

"My name is Susan!" She shouted after him. The image on the screen melted away.

* * *

"Alright, I get to work for Ultra Lord!" Sheen pumped his fists in the air out of excitement.

"Alright, who is next?" Jimmy asked, resetting the machine.

"I'll go next Jimmy. I've always wanted to see the future!" Libby said. JImmy adjusted the machine again, and another picture came up.

* * *

Libby looked out from behind the curtain, out at the crowd of people. _"This has to be our biggest concert yet!_

"Alright guys, you ready?" She looked back at her band, which was weilding all sorts of instruments. There was a man with a guitar, a girl with an electric bass, a guy on drums, a man with a violin, another man with an accordian, and a few girls standing off to the side, apparently back up singers. They all gave Libby a nod. "Cool, let's do this!"

The band took the stage, and Libby walked out front to her keyboard, which had a mic placed in front of it.

"Hello Retroville! I'm Libby, and this is UltraPhunk! Are you ready to get your groove on?" Upon hearing this the crowd went wild, and the band started playing a fast moving rock number. Libby scanned the crowd, looking for someone. She almost gave up when that "someone" burst through the door, catching his breath. Libby smiled. It just wasn't a concert without her Sheen watching.

* * *

Back at the lab, Jimmy and co. watched and danced as Libby performed her concert. They only got a few songs before the image went away.

"Wow Libby, that was amazing."

"Thanks Carl, I appreciate that." Libby turned to Sheen. "Why were you late to my concert?"

"I was attacked by a tape monster, we just watched it!"

Jimmy pondered. "Interesting, these events seem to be taking place simultaneously. Carl, lets see what you're up to." After pressing some buttons, Carl appeared on the screen.

* * *

Cindy was bored. "Jimmy, we just watched Carl watch Libbys concert for over an hour! When do I getto see my future?"

"We're only waiting until I get to see my llamas." Carl replied.

"Carl, you're at a concert hundreds of miles away from your prize winning llamas. I don't think we'll be seeing them tonight." Jimmy broke the bad news to his friend. "Here Cindy, here's your future.

* * *

_"Oh no oh no oh no! I can't believe I lost it!"_ Cindy started ripping the seats off a nearby couch. _"Oh, I hope I can find it before he comes home."_ She was starting to worry. _"How could I lose something that important?"_

"Jimmy, what am looking for?" Present time Cindy asked Jimmy back at the lab.

"I don't know Cindy, we'd have to wait until you found it, but I don't know when you will. You may never find what you're looking for."

"Jimmy, why don't we see your future?" Carl suggested.

"Oh well, if you insist." Jimmy replied modestly. "But..." Cindy wanted to keep watching. Whatever her future self was looking for was important, but Jimmy had already brought his future on the screen.

* * *

"And what would you like to drink with that tonight sir?" The drivethru box asked Jimmy. Already running behind schedule, Jimmy decided to stop at a fast food joint on his way home.

"I'll have a Purple Flurp please."

"Your total will be $7.82 please pull ahead to the next window."

* * *

"This is boring Jimmy, you're just eating supper." Sheen complained.

"Sheen, lets just wait until we see what he ordered. I want to see what future food looks like." Carl's stomach spoke for him.

* * *

"Here you are sir, your food will be ready in just a moment." A female fast food worker handed Jimmy his drink. The girl looked at Jimmy's hand. "Hey, that's a nice ring you have there."

"Jimmy looked down at his hand. "Oh, thank you."

"What's that on the side there?" The girl squinted to see.

"The side says Chlorine." Jimmy told the worker, who gave him a blank stare.

"Chlorine is an element with seven valence electrons in its outer shell. The seven little circles around the band represent those electrons. Since it only has seven in its outer shell, it's highly unstable in its pure form, but if it had just one more electron, it would be Neon, one of the most stable elements on the table." The worker still gave him a blank stare. "Wait, is that a wedding ring?"

"Yes it is. The other ring only has one circle, signifying the eighth valence electron, along with a bright neon green diamond to top it off."

The worker lady thought for a minute. "Oh, ok. Aww, that's so romantic, in a geeky sort of way."

Jimmy smiled. "I know. It was perfect." The lady handed Jimmy his food.

* * *

"Dude, you're married?" Sheen asked in amazment.

"Well, that does tend to happen to adults Sheen." Libby told her boyfriend. "Apparently not us though."

"Hey, you can't hold me responsible for what I do in the future! I'm just a kid!" Sheen and Libby started to leave the lab, arguing along the way. Jimmy watched them go.

"Well then, I guess I'll see all of you tommorow." Jimmy started to pack up his equipment. "Wait!" Jimmy turned to face Cindy, who had yelled. "Can you put it back on mine? I want to see if I found what I was looking for.

"Alright." Jimmy brought Cindys back up. Future Cindy was still searching on the screen. "Doesn't look like it. If you want you can stay and watch it. Just push the get Goddard to help you clean it up." Jimmy turned around. "Hey, where'd Carl go?" He ran off. Cindy stared at the screen.

"C'mon, where is it?" Future Cindy asked herself. "Wait, maybe it feel off in the sink! I'd better scan the pipes!"

_"Scan?"_ Cindy thought to herself. _"What does she mean by scan?"_

Future Cindy came back on screen with some weird looking contraption. She pointed it at the pipes below the sink and dragged it along their path. Suddenly it made a dinging noise. "Yes!" She yelled. She picked up a wrench and started to take off the pipe.

_"Why would whatever she's looking for be inside a pipe?" _Cindy wondered. She heard a clinging noise and looked up at the screen. Future Cindy held up what looked like a ring. It shone brilliant neon green. _"A ring? Wait, that looks like what Future Jimmy was talking about. Why would I have it?" _

"Lost your ring again Mrs. Nerdtron?" Future Cindy turned to see Future Jimmy standing over her, holding a fast food bag in one hand and a purple flurp in the other. He put his drink down to help her off the floor. "At least Goddard didn't eat again." Cindy said playfully, moving closer to Jimmy. It almost looked like they were about to.....

"Gasp! Eww...." Back at the lab Cindy covered her eyes, but only for a moment. She peeked out from behind her hands and watched her future self kiss her rival/crush's future self.

_"Oh. My. Gosh. I get married to Jimmy? But he seemed so excited when he was talking about the ring." _Cindy frowned. _"When Jimmy watched this again he's going to find out, and he'll just go back to the future and change everything again. I can't let him see this, I don't want him to think I have feelings for him!" _Cindy looked around the room for something taht could help. Her eyes landed on Jimmys mechanical dog, who had been watching the whole time.

"Goddard please, you have to help me keep Jimmy from seeing this!" Cindy begged. "Goddard looked up and walked towards the machine and sat in front of it. "Goddard, what are you doing?"

Goddard looked blankly in front of him. Suddenly, he blew himself up into little tiny peices, taking the arch out with him. "What's going on?" Jimmy burst through the lab door. Cindy stammered.

"I, uh, oh I'm sorry Jimmy, I was playing with Goddard and I told him to play dead. I'm used to my dog not exploding when he does that, I forgot Goddard would."

_"Quick thinking Cindy."_ She said in her head. _"I sounded out of character ,but I think he bought it."_

Jimmy sighed. It's alright Cindy, these things happen. You'd better go home so I can clean up the arch. It'll take months to repair it, if I ever even want to fix it." _"Yes!" _Cindy thought as she walked out the lab. She couldn't stop thinking about Jimmy the entire walk home.


	5. Sneaking Around

Everybody has secrets. Some are worse than others, and some aren't even really secrets. And while this will never happen in one of my stories, I'd like to bring to mind a famous quote about secrets: "Three men can keep a secret if two of the are dead."

Perhaps women are better at keeping secrets.

* * *

"...and then his Mom asked him to pass the steak sauce, and when he handed it to me to give to her our hands touched and I dropped the sauce and it got all over my pants! He must think..."

"Girl, calm down! Jeez, take a second to breathe."

It was later that night and Cindy immediatley called Libby as soon as she got home. She knew it was going to be awkward, for her at least, but she didn't expect to make a fool of herself. She ended the night smelling like A1 steak sauce.

"Libby, what should I do?"

"Not freak out. Like what you're doing right now, you've got to stop it."

"Jimmy's probably laughing at me right now." Cindy said with a sigh.

"Mmhmm, and why do you care again?" Libby raised her eyebrow.

"What? I don't! I'm just, curious, is all."

"Well why don't you ask him then? He's still up, Sheen is over there right now."

_"Sheen? I thought he said he wasn't expecting anybody tonight. No, that was just Carl."_

* * *

"And then she got steak sauce all over her jeans!" Jimmy laughed.

"I bet those pants must have tasted good." Sheen said, earning him a blank stare from Carl and a weird look from Jimmy. "Not that I've ever tried to eat my pants.."

"Sheen, that statement is horrifying on so many levels I'm just going to pretend it never happened." Jimmy said.

"Well, I'd better get back home. I told Libby I'd only be here for an hour."

"Wait, you told Libby you were coming?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Did you tell her Carl was here?"

"No, I thought she assumed that he was."

"Alright. Goodnight Sheen."

Sheen looked confused. "O...k. Night guys."

"Jimmy, am I not supposed to be here?" Carl asked, after Sheen had left.

"Carl, you're always welcome. I just don't need anyone else to know that you're here right now."

"Oh, ok. Why exactly?"

Jimmy laughed. "Just for one of my more psychological expiriments." Carl looked worried.

"Am I being tested on?" Jimmy laughed some more.

"No, you're not being tested on."

"Good, cause I don't think my mom would like that."

"I don't think she'll like you staying up this late either." Jimmy said, looking at the clock. "You'd better get home.

* * *

Cindy woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air. _"Not another nightmare, that's the third one this week. And it's only Wednesday!"_ Not able to get back to sleep, she went to her window to get a bit of fresh air.

_Gosh, it's peaceful out here. Kind've cold though. Hmm?" _Cindy spotted none other than Carl Wheezer, walking outside on the sidewalk. _"He's not usually out so late. And it looks like he's coming from Jimmy's house..." _

* * *

Cautiously, Carl walked down the darkened sidewalk, afraid of what he couldn't see. Considering that it was nighttime, that was a lot of things. He didn't much like being alone in the dark, and tonight was no exception. _"Alright there Carl, there is nothing here. Nothing is going to jump out at you, or make and loud noises."_

"Carl!"

"Augh!" Carl jumped up into the air and landed with a thud. "Cindy, what are you doing out this late?"

"Oh, I was just enjoying a nice relaxing stroll. What are you doing out this late?" Cindy demanded, getting in Carls face.

"I was just, uhmm, taking a walk."

"At this time of night? You're afraid of the dark."

"You said you wouldn't tell anybody!" Cindy rolled her eyes.

"Were you just at Nerdtrons house?"

"Jimmy said you wern't supposed to call him that anymore!"

"Oh yeah, when did you hear that?"

"Just a little bit ago, over at the lab."

Immediatley after saying that, Carl slapped his hand over his mouth. Cindy grinned.

"I wasn't supposed to tell you that." Carl said through his fingers.

"Jimmy said you weren't going to be over at his house tonight, so why were you over there?" Cindy started moving closer towards Carl, who began to get frightened.

"He said he doing some sort of psycholgical experiment, but I don't know what he was talking about."

_"Psychological experiment? Oh, he had got some explaining to do!" _Cindy ran towards Jimmys lab.

"Aghh, don't hurt me!" Carl threw up his hands when he saw Cindy move.

* * *

"Alright Goddard, I'm just about set. I've just got to rinse these test tubes out and I'll...."

"Psychological experiment!" Cindy yelled, causing Jimmy to drop his test tubes. Goddard barked and moved into clean up the broken glass.

"Cindy? How did you get in here?"

"You made me a door, remember?" Cindy motioned towards the entrance. "What am I, an experment?"

"Where did you hear that?" Jimmy wondered. "What did you do to Carl?"

"Oh, he's fine, I left him on the sidewalk after he accidently blurted out that he was over at your house."

_"Uh oh." _Jimmy thought. "So, I see you got the steak sauce out of your jeans."

"Neutron....." Cindy said through gritted teeth.

"Hey now, don't forget that bet you made."

"Jimmy....." Cindy clenched her fist.

"I called him over after supper because I needed an extra set of hands for my experiment, sheesh." Jimmy said as he turned around, his back to Cindy.

"Well what about this psychological thing then? Am I just a bunch of data to you?"

"What? No! That experiment has nothing to do with you."

"Well then what's it about?"

"That's none of your business."

"Oh, I'll make it my business." Cindy said as she raised her fist. Jimmy just stood there. "I'll bet you anything in my lab that you aren't going to hit me."

Cindy stood there, her fist raised high. Finally, she sighed and dropped her arm. "Fine, you win. What do you want?"

"I just want to go to bed and pretend like this whole incident didn't happen, alright?" Jimmy said with a yawn. Cindy stared at him for just a second, and turned around and left.

"I hope I didn't hurt her feelings." Jimmy said to Goddard, after Cindy had left. "Maybe you should go check on her." Goddard barked and ran towards the door.

* * *

Cindy sat on the curb just outside of Jimmys house, wiping a tear away from her eye. _"Great, he must hate me now."_ She noticed a tissue in front of her face and grabbed it, reveiling Goddard sitting right next to her.

''What do you want?" Cindy asked. Goddard opened up his computer screen. _"Maybe you should go check on her."_ Jimmys voice played through his speakers.

"Great, pity. Why should I listen to you anyways?" _"Goddard please, you have to help me keep Jimmy from seeing this!" _Cindy heard her own voice play back to her. "Wow, you really record everything."

"Bark!" Goddard replied. Cindy giggled.

"It's a shame Jimmy won't make more of you, you're a really cool dog. I'd love to have something like you." Cindy sighed. "I don't think Jimmy will make anything more for me though, not after tonight. Jimmy must hate me."

"Bark!" Goddard lifted up his screen. _"Hey mom, is it alright if I have Cindy over for dinner?"_  
Cindy looked up at the screen. _"She's allergic to shellfish, could we have something else tonight?" _Jimmys voice carried though up to her ears. _"Thanks mom." _Goddard closed his screen.

"So, he planned on having me for dinner?" Cindy asked, to nobody in particular. "Why would he do that?" Goddard shrugged, which seemed an impossible thing to do, but never the less, he shrugged. "Huh." Cindy thought. "Maybe I should call Libby. Thanks Goddard." Cindy gave the mechanical dog a hug. "Bark!"

* * *

"A what experiment?" Libby was listening to Cindy go on about Jimmy, instead of sleeping, like she had wanted to. _"If that girl wasn't my best friend I'd hang up on her right now."_

_"And then Goddard showed me a video of Jimmy making plans for having me for dinner! Does this make any sense at all?"_

"No, it honestly doesn't." Libby replied. "Look girl, it's 12:30 in the morning. You need your beauty sleep."

_"I know, but I didn't know what to do, and..."_

"Well right now you need to sleep. Tommorow, go appologize to Jimmy, see what he does. Maybe you being nice will throw him off his game. Alright. Ok then. Goodnight."

_"Something is going on here, and something tells me that I'm going to have to figure this all out or Cindy is going to loss her mind."_

* * *

"Hey, Jimmy? Jimmy turned around to see Cindy standing behind him, looking nervous. "About last night..."

It was Thursday morning, and Jimmy and the gang were in his newly built rocket ship, probably his best one yet. This one actually had rooms, and while everyone else was checking them out, Cindy took the time to try and talk to Jimmy.

"Guys, don't go back out yet!" Libby pulled Carl and Sheen away from the door. They were in one of the bedrooms on the ship.

"Why not?" Sheen asked.

"Because, Cindy is trying to talk to Jimmy, and she certainly doesn't need you interupting.

"What does she need to talk about? She's obviously secretly in love with him." Sheen said. "Yeah, even I could tell that." Carl added.

"Just stay here, alright?" Libby told them, watching Cindy pass by the room they were in. She was smiling, just a little bit, but enough to tell Libby that those two were all done talking. _"Time to get to the bottom of this." _

"Hey Jimmy?" Jimmy turned around to see Libby standing behind him. "What is it?"

"You know that three headed monster thing in Greek mythology? The one that lives in the underworld?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Is that thing a dog?"

"Yes" Jimmy responded.

"I thought it was a fox." Libby said, hoping he'd take the bait.

"Foxes are dogs Libby, everybody knows that."

"Are you sure?" Libby mocked confusion. "Yes Libby, they taught us that in third grade."

"I thought you were moved to fourth grade?"

"I wanted to, but the school wouldn't let me." Jimmy sounded frustrated.

"Libby, can we come out now?" They heard Sheen yell down the hall. "Where are they?"

"Oh, they're fine, they're just goofing around." Libby said, turning down the hall.

_"Third grade, huh? Jimmy must've lost that bet on purpose. Why would he do that? He can't be losing them on purpose, he's won as many as he's lost. Maybe he actually is doing some sort of psychological experiment on all of us." _Libby though as she entered the room she had left Carl and Sheen in. She came back to find Sheen, standing on his head, holding a nightstand up on his feet, with Carl sitting on top. _"I don't want to know."_


	6. Flight or Fright

Accidents happen. Sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes we panic. Life is fifty percent screwing up, and fifty percent how we deal with it.

`

"Alright gang, the new Neutron Rocket should be all set for our expidition to Venus tommorow." Jimmy announced to his "crew".

"Jimmy, why are we going to Venus?" Sheen asked, scratching his head.

"Well, due to the planets atmosphere and abundance of volcanoes, the mixture of the ashes with volcanic gas should create a new type of compound." Jimmy explained.

"Oh." Sheen looked down. "What?"

Jimmy sighed. "I'll explain when we get there. As for right now we've got to prepare, the temperature on Venus is much hotter than on Mars or The Moon."

Cindy tried to act like she didn't care, despite being hooked on his every word._ "If he ever finds out that I actually love it when he goes off on his little rants I'll never hear the end of it. I wish he didn't sound so cute. Ugh, I can't believe that I'm actually thinking this way about Nerdtron. I'm hopeless." _Rolling her eyes, she saw something that shocked her to the core. There, outside the rocket and coming towards it was Betty Quinlan. _"What on Earth is she doing here? Oh no! She's probably here to see Jimmy! I've got to keep her off the ship!" _

"Hey Jimmy, maybe we should take off today, I hear that the weather is going to be pretty bad tommorow." Jimmy looked at her.

"Nonsense, I checked the weather before we came aboard, it's supposed to be a clear sky."

"Uhm, I mean the weather on Venus."

"How could you find the weather on Venus?"

"Oh, it's just a hunch." Cindy covered.

"Science doesn't operate on hunches. We'll launch right as scheduled tommorow morning."

Cindy looked back out the window. _"Oh no, she's almost here!" _Thinking fast, she walked over to Carl. "Hey Carl, I, uhm, need to ask you for a favor."

"What do you want Cindy?"

"Well......." Cindy thought. She couldn't think of any excuse for what she was asking. "Betty Quinlan is outside looknig for Jimmy, and I need you to take her away from the ship."

Carl thought for a second, then a look came on his face. It looked like he was about to laugh. "Ok Cindy, I'll tell her he's in the house." Cindy gave him a weird look. _"What's up with that look?" _"Thanks Carl."

Cindy looked over at the control panel while Jimmy wasn't looking. Her eyes were drawn to a big green button. She looked a little closer and read the label. "Emergency Launch System." _"This must launch the ship for quick getaways. How can I press it without Jimmy knowing that I did?" _She looked down and saw a convieniently placed UltraLord sticker. _"That aught to do it." _She slapped the sticker on the button. _"Now to distract Jimmy and somehow get Sheen to press the button."_ She walked over to Sheen, who was spinning in one of the chairs nearby. "Hey Sheen, I think I saw some sort of UltraLord thing over there." Sheen immediatly jumped from his seat. "Where?" Cindy pointed towards the button and Sheen took off running.

"Oh Jimmy?" Cindy called, walking over to him. "Is there a girls room on this ship?"

"Yes, just down the hall."

`

Sheen stared at the button. _"UltraLord........."_ The more he stared, the more he wanted to press it. He tried to look away, but he couldn't take his eyes off of his glorious hero. _"UltraLord......"_

`

Jimmy had just lead Cindy to the restroom when the ship started to lurch. "Leaping Leptons, what is going on?" He ran towards the cockpit. _"Yes!"_ Cindy thought. She ran after her secret crush out to the cockpit.

"Sheen, what did you do?" Jimmy asked in terror.

"There was an UltraLord button, and I kind of pressed it." Sheen kicked at the ground. Jimmy ran over to the button. "Sheen, that was a launch button. The wiring wasn't done yet, we'll never make it out of the atmosphere!" Everyones gasped, and Cindy started to back away from the group. "_Oh no....." _

"What are we going to do?" Libby asked.

"We might be able to escape through the escape pods, but if we launch them to early they'll crash to the ground before the thruster kick in."

"Well how much time do we have?"

"About five minutes." Jimmy said with a grim expression on his face. "If I manually pilot the ship I might be able to give us enough distance to safely use the pods, but I'll need a co-pilot." Jimmy looked around. "Where's Carl?"

"I saw him get off the ship a little bit before we took off. He was laughing about something."

"Carl was supposed to be my co-pilot, he can't be off the ship!" Jimmy searched the room. _"Cindy isn't here either. She'd be my next choice after Carl."_ "Is Cindy still on the ship?"

"I don't know!" Jimmy sighed. "Well then, it's either you or Sheen." Libby looked over at Sheen, who was currently chewing on his own ankle. "I'll do it."

"Alright then, Just do exactly what I say."

`

Cindy sat on one of the beds in the back of the ship. _"I just doomed us all, and all because od stupid Betty Quinlan. Why does Jimmy even like her? It's just not fair."_ Cindy wiped a tear from her eye. _"I shouldn't be crying, I'm supposed to be the tough one. Why do I care so much? He's only smart, and funny, and his hair is so handsome, and he's nice and kind..."_ She sighed. "Stupid Nerdtron. Why does he have to be so like-able?" She asked out loud. "It doesn't matter, we're all going to die soon anyways. At least I'll be back here, so nobody will see me weak." Cindy closed her eyes. _"But I really really want Jimmy to hold me...."_ Cindy couldn't hold back her tears any longer.

`

Meanwhile, Jimmy was instructing Libby, who was trying her best to follow his orders. Sheen was sent to check the escape pods, and look for Cindy.

"There, we should be all right now, until Sheen gets back." Jimmy said, letting go of the controls. Libby sighed. "So what now?" Jimmy shrugged. "We wait."

"Hey Jimmy?" Libby asked. Jimmy turned his head to look at her. "Why are you losing bets to Cindy on purpose?" Jimmy looked surprised. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't give me that, you told her the foxes were felines, and you just told me that they were dogs."

"That was a common mistake, anyone could make it!" He said nervously. Libby stared at him. Jimmy sighed. "Oh, alright. You see, I just wanted to do something nice for her, but I didn't know how. I figured that if I lost a bet she wouldn't suspect anything." Libby opened her eyes wide. "Suspect what exactly?"

"Guys, the pods are ready, but I can't find Cindy." Sheen interupted, blowing Jimmy back to reality. He looked at the ships readings. "Pukin Pluto, we need to go now! Libby, you and Sheen get in a pod and leave now. I'll go find Cindy and we'll be right after you."

"But..." Libby tried to say, but Jimmy took off. "Hurry!" She yelled after him.

`

Cindy sat on the bed, just managing to keep her tears under control. _"It's a good thing Jimmy didn't see that." _Just then, Jimmy burst through the door. "Cindy, get up, we've got to get out of here!"

Instead of getting up, Cindy sat still. Jimmy walked over to her. "Cindy, come on, lets go." Just then, Cindy couldn't hold it in any longer. "It's all my fault!" Tears were running down her face as she threw herself onto the bed, sobbing. "Huh?" Jimmy was confused. "What's your fault?"

"I made Sheen press that stupid button and now we're all going to die!" Cindy was shaking uncontrolably. Jimmy didn't know what to do, he had never seen her like this before. Remembering the situation, he pulled her off of the bed.

"Cindy, listen to me. I don't care whose fault this was, it doesn't matter. If we get into an escape pod, we can get out of here alive, but we have to go now!" Cindy wiped her eyes with her free hand as jimmy grabbed the other one and pulled her out of the room. The ship shook violently, steam was billowing out from the walls. "Hurry!" Jimmy yelled, dragging Cindy behind. Suddenly, Jimmy shoved her into a small, pill shaped object, which Cindy took as the escape pods. Just as Jimmy closed the door behind him, she could see fire from outside the window. She screamed. "Don't worry, the pod should be able to survive the fire, it's the explosion I'm worrying about."

"Explosion?" Cindy asked. The pod suddenly dropped from the ship, hurtling into the sky. A loud boom came from above them, and the shock wave lurced the pod to the right, slamming Jimmy against the frightened girl. Cindy looked down at Jimmy, and despite all the terror going on around her, all she could think about was that Jimmy was practically laying on top of her. "Blast it, the explosion knoced us off course! I don't know where we're going to land." He got up off of Cindy. "We'll be in total free fall for a few minutes until the thrusters kick in." Cindy took a deep breath. "What about the others?"

"Libby and Sheen are in another pod, they took off before us. Carl wasn't on the ship when we took off."

Cindy turned her head and stared out the window. _"What have I done?"_


	7. Defying Gravity

The minutes Jimmy and Cindy spent in that pod so far were in total silence. To Cindy it felt like an eternity. Turned so her back was facing Jimmy, her head resting on the wall, she just sat there and thought, blaming herself over and over in her head. To Jimmy, on the other hand, the drop wasn't nearly long enough. Pacing in what little space he had to pace, he mumbled to himself, calculating their trajectory and attempting to do the same for Libby and Sheen. He thought he knew about when their pod dropped, and he had a good idea about where to look for them, but he had no idea on just what exactly they would be landing on. The minutes ticked away, and Jimmy opened his mouth and cut the silence like a bread knife cuts, well, bread. "Uh oh."

* * *

Cindy slowly turned her head and looked at him. "What do you mean, 'Uh oh'?" Jimmy noticed her eyes were flushed red. He knew she had been crying, but there wasn't really anything he could do, she wouldn't listen to him.

"The thrusters should have started by now, without them we'll just keep falling until we smash into the ground."

Jimmy expected Cindy to argue, to yell at him for this, but instead she just stared, not at Jimmy, but through him. "How much time do we have?"

"At this rate, unless we manually activate the thrusters, we'll hit ground in ten minutes." Jimmy said solemnly. "I can't activate them by myself."

Cindy finally looked Jimmy in the eyes. She had never heard him admit that he needed help before. Yes, he did need their assistance at times, but this was different. "What should we do?"

Jimmy looked up. "Well, the only way to activate the rockets is to ignite them by hand. It's like a stove top, there is gas coming out , but there's no spark to light the fire. I could go out there myself and light it, but I don't have anything to light it with. All my equipment is in my lab, and I was going to add the final touches to the pods before we left..." Jimmy stopped talking. He didn't want to make her feel guilty. He didn't blame her for what happened, he actually blamed himself for not having everything done by now.

Cindy swallowed another pang of guilt. She wished there was something that she could do, but she couldn't think of anything. _"Ten minutes."_ She thought, looking down at her watch. Something was tugging in the back of her head, but she couldn't tell what it was. She tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't go away. She looked over at Jimmy, staring out the window. She couldn't stand to see him like that, the spark in his eyes gone. She couldn't stand the nagging thought in her head as well. In a last ditch attempt to make it go away, she focused all of her awareness on it, clenching her fists together, attempting to push it out. All of a sudden she saw a bright light, the force of the thought causing her to stumble back. Jimmy turned and saw her.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Cindy said, rushed. _"So that's what a brainblast feels like....."_ "Jimmy, what if we used my watch?" She pulled on the straps and handed it to him. "Maybe we could overload one of the gadets or something."

And just like that, a spark flew into Jimmys eyes. "Of course, Cindy you're a genius! If I can get your watch close enough to the engine and activate two of the gadgets at the same time, the resulting sparks should ignite the thruster before the watch itself starts to melt."

"You gave me a watch that melts?" Cindy asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"It's a slight design flaw that I haven't figured out yet. I warned you about it, didn't I?" Jimmy started to take off his belt. "Uhm, what are you doing?" Cindy asked.

"We're going to attatch our belts together to create a safety line, in case I fall off the side of the pod." Cindy felt a pit form in her stomach. "You're going outside the pod?"

"It's the only way to start the thrusters. Don't worry, I always wear my magnet shoes, for occasions like these." Jimmy lifted up his shoe, trying to show Cindy the magnet. "I'll need your belt."

"Alright, but you'd better not lose it. It's my favorite belt." Cindy pulled her belt off her waist. Jimmy gave it a weird look. It looked like any normal belt, except instead of it being brown or black, it had zebra stripes. He fastened the belts together, and tied one end to his wrist.

"Alright, make sure to stay away enough from the window, so you don't get sucked out. But if I activate the thrusters and get knocked off the pod, and I start to drag you out, let go." Cindy snapped her head up to face him. "What?" Jimmy looked her in the eyes. "If I fall, I don't want to take you with me. If you think you can pull me back in, do it, otherwise let go. Hopefully that won't be an issue though, my magnet shoes should hold me down." Jimmy handed her the other end of the belt and moved over to the window and popped in open. The pod instantly filled with rushing air and it screeched it their ears. "Be careful!" Cindy telled after Jimmy, as he started to crawl out the window. _"Please come back...."_

* * *

Jimmy inched his way along the outer side of the pod, thankful that it was small enough so he could reach the thrusters without making Cindy get too close to the window. Time was running out, and he tried to hurry as slow as he could, so he wouldn't get blown away. His shoes were magnetic, but otherwise he was powerless to the wind.

* * *

Cindy watched Jimmy crawl along the pod walls. She could hardly keep herself from crying, she didn't want him out there. She'd rather he be talking to Betty, in the safety of his backyard. She started to wonder how exactly she let herself fall for him, but she only wondered for a moment. She couldn't afford to lose focus, it could mean losing Jimmy. Besides, she knew already knew the answer to her question anyways. _"Please be ok...."_

_

* * *

_

Jimmy reached with each inching crawl he took, finally reaching the thruster. He stopped once he could feel the gas flow onto the palm of his hand. Carefully, he reached with the hand that was attatched to the belt, and started pressing buttons on the watch. _"Whichever gadgets I use to do this will be destroyed in the process. Which two won't she mind missing?" _Jimmy pulled out the thermometer. It was a cool item, but not the most important in hazardous situations. _"Alright, one more. Now which one.... wait. Duh."_ Jimmy pressed more buttons until the barometer popped out. The device started to spark, and a few sparks landed on Jimmy, burning his arm. Finally, one of the wayward sparks reached the gas, and the thrusters roared to life. The force of the rockets blew Jimmy back into an upright position. Jimmy struggled against the wind, trying to get back down, when suddenly, he felt his feet slipping right out of his shoes.

* * *

Cindy watched in horror as Jimmy struggled againt the wind. All of a sudden, Jimmy flew away from the rocket, almost taking the belt with him if Cindy hadn't of fastened it to her own wrist while he was lighting the thruster. She reached for something to hold onto, but there wasn't anything she could really grab. Desperately trying to hold Jimmy back, she felt herself slide towards the window. _"No! I'm not letting him go!"_ She screamed in her head as placed a foot out in front of her, trying to pull him back in. All of a sudden, she got pulled back with a jerk. No longer on the ground, she hurtled towards the window. Reaching for the pod, Cindy grabbed onto the window, praying that it wouldn't rip off. She snuck a peek up above her, sighing a sigh of relief when she saw Jimmy still attatched, holding himself to the side of the pod.

* * *

Now it was Jimmys turn to watch with horror as Cindy clung onto the window for both of their dear lives. He glanced at the watch, trying to figure out how much time they had. It took him six minutes to activate the rockets, and he didn't know how long they had spent in the pod before, but either way they should be hitting ground very shortly. Looking down, he saw that he was right. They were swiftly coming upon a beach, and it looked like they were going to be making a landing in the water. With the thrusters on, their descent should be slow enough for them to survive a fall, albiet a painful one. _"Alright Neutron, you only have one chance for this, don't mess it up."_ Jimmy waited for the right moment, and suddenly he jerked on the belt, pulling Cindy off the window.

* * *

As Cindy felt herself fly from the window, her first reaction was to scream. Her second reaction was to look at Jimmy. She turned and saw him kick off from the pod, pushing it away from him and pulling her with him. Cindy couldn't even think as they fell towards the water. Suddenly she felt a tug on the belt, and her and Jimmy were right next to eachother. She was in to much in shock to try and speak to him, only scream. Jimmy pulled her close and shifted his body, forcing them into some sort of barrel roll, leaving Jimmy on the bottom of the two falling bodies. Cindy looked into his eyes briefly before forcing them shut, and Jimmy held her tight, absorbing their fall into the water.

* * *

Cindy opened her eyes and saw fish. She looked at her wrist and didn't see the belt. She looked around until she found Jimmy floating not to far away, unmoving. She swam over to him and dragged him up to the surface, swimming them both to shore. When they hit sand, Cindy kneeled over Jimmy, trying to see if he was breathing. Remembering back to her early swimming lessons, she started to push on his chest. She was about to lean down and breathe for him when he started to spit up water. "Jimmy!" She hugged him once he spat out all the water. "I thought you were a goner!"

"Hey Cindy." Jimmy said weakly, looking around. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, some beach somewhere. Oh, I'm so glad you're ok!" She tried to wrap him in another hug, but Jimmy started to stand up. "How did we get here?"

Cindy gave him a confused look. "You don't remember the escape pod?" Jimmy shook his head. "No, I guess not. All I can remember is...." He trailed off in thought. "All I can remember is your name. I don't even remember mine."

Cindy watched, stunned, as Jimmy looked around at their surroundings. _"Oh my gosh, I broke Jimmy....."_


End file.
